Lexie Smith is an artist and baker, though it’s only relatively recently, after years of working in restaurant kitchens and balancing creative pursuits on the side, that she wholly fused both passions through her community-based art project, Bread on Earth. Her work often takes on various forms, from performance and installation to photography, writing, and publishing, all centered around bread and its cultural resonances. As New York City went into lockdown this spring, Smith offered to send a free sourdough starter to anyone who requested one, and has mailed out more than 1,000 to date. We recently spoke with Smith, just as she was harvesting her first crop of grains in Upstate New York, about why the humble food serves as an apt vehicle for discussing social, political, economic, and ecological concerns.